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Operation equality

March 25th, 2011 by admin

 

Without seeing and knowing

Without reading or thinking

Without understanding

You attacked like stupid.

 

O brother so innocent,

Like this, would communism come?

Water in place of land

Land where there is water

Pit where there is hill

And mountain where there is valley

Only by making such drastic changes

Will there be revolution/?

 

It is none of your business to be a comrade

You are so sentimental

Leave alone Marx and Mao,

Had you played with a tribal boy in Nuxalbari school

You would do some good.

 

You are becoming anarchist uncontrolled and

Burn dry and wet indiscriminately.

You devour good along with bad,

In a sentiment if you break everything

Will it make Nav Nirman?

May be you can make every thing a level,

You cannot make every thing equal.

Yes, you chose an auspicious day,

26th January,

the republic day of the nation.

 

The innocent children of Anjar  were

Unfurling the fake flags of freedom, equality and fraternity

And like an anarchist you attacked them at random.

 

You were so mad with rage that you could not even find a correct epicenter.

Kutch is a land of saints and donors,

There may be rare outlaws like Jeasal too

O good brother,

For you Delhi or Gandhinagar were not so far.

 

Yes, you are right.

The time is such that you burn with rage

You may wish to break to pieces the God

Who had promised to reincarnate himself

but has hidden himself

Instead in the idols.

 

Without seeing and knowing

Without reading or thinking

Without understanding

 

Some hang around for a drop of water

Some have highjacked the lakes and lakes to their terraces

Some crave for a ray of moonlight

While some have hidden entire sun behind their skyscraper.

Some have dried riverbed springs

And some have controlled Narmda and brought to their village.

 

Eager we too are

Doing all the bonded labor since centuries.

We made them netizens from citizens

And in return we wander exiled

But we are humane:

Our one eye weeps the other is red with rage

We do not wish to make this culture mohenjodaro.

we do not believe like mad Parsuram in the bloody revolution,

We are the followers of compassionate Buddha.

 

Come, see the effects of your aftershocks.

And repent like the King of Kalinga.

No one appeared when the cyclone blew on Orissa.

With their NRI connections

The series of overseas flights arrives

And white dogs identify the stench of their corpses earlier.

Rescue relief rehabilitation everything occurs here as per

The hierarchy of varnasham dharma

Government theirs, swaymsewakas theirs

For them at the maternal uncle’s place mother serves the food

And we are the helpless ones!

The rich Swiss tents were taken away by the leaders and officers

Pyjamas from Pakistan were taken away by the chaddi-banian- dharis.

We hardly had a share of a piece of tin or tarpaulin

Their vastushastris said

‘as per their caste, allot them the plots.

We were given the wastelands of the village ponds.

Come, get early salvation by drowning in the ponds!

 

O kind brother earthquake,

Your operation equality is a failure.

Even if you strike at a Richter scale

of whatever magnitude

You will not be able to remove

India’s social nature and environment.

You may have limitless kindness

And yet you will not be able to realize

Baba’s dream written in

the preface of Indian constitution.

 

Of course, they will remember

The nights lighted by the stars

though under the shadow of fear.

 

Hence please do not strike again

Without seeing and knowing

Without reading or thinking

Without understanding anything.

 

G K Vankar's translation of Neerav Patel's Gujarati poem "Operation equality". On 26 January 2001 Kutch, Gujarat was affected by a massive earthquake. Nav Nirman refers to a Youth agitation against corruption.  

 

Neerav Patel  holds a Ph.D. in English literature, born 2 December,1950. He is a well-known Dalit poet and editor. He edits Swaman, a journal of dalit writings, notably pieces of autobiographical prose. Along with Dalpat Chauhan and Praveen Gadhavi, he initiated Gujarati dalit literature with publication of Dalit Panthers’ 'Kalo Suraj' (The Black Sun). A bi-lingual writer, his collections of poetry are 'Baghishkrut Phulo '(2006), 'Burning from both the ends' (1980, in English), and 'What did I do to be black and blue' (1987 in English). He served as a Bank Officer, after his retirement he devotes his entire time to Dalit literature and activity.

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